Exclusive new ‘Cloudy 2’ poster features James Caan being chased by a BananaOstrich

“This is James Caan’s character Tim Lockwood being chased by our food animals known as the BananaOstrich.”

Well, you just sold me a ticket, “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2.”

The first “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs” was one of those lovely little animation surprises, where something came together beautifully. Phil Lord and Chris Miller took the lovely but simple book by Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett and turned it into a very fast-paced and sincere bit of animated surreality, full of wonderful goofball gags and a very sweet and sunny disposition. The first film ended with a victory for Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) and ‘Baby’ Brent (Andy Samberg) and Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell) and Earl Devereaux (Mr. T) and his son Cal (Bobb’e J. Thompson), and it felt like it had done a great job of making all the characters feel like a community.

For the sequel, Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn are working from a script by John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, and they’ve basically turned this into “The Lost World,” as the people of ChewandSwallow return to their town and find that evolution has gone out of control and that Flint’s machine is now turning out monsters, animal-food hybrids that are taking over.

That brings us to today’s poster. Tim Lockwood, Flint’s Dad, appears to be fleeing, and why not? I’m not sure how I’d react if I saw a BananaOstrich. Getting out of its way would definitely be a priority.

This is just one of many “Cloudy 2” posters that you’ll be seeing online today, and I’m glad we got Tim Lockwood. I thought the father-son stuff in the first film was really sweet, and Caan brought a fairly amazing degree of vulnerability to it. Not everyone’s back for the sequel. Terry Crews is stepping in for Mr. T, for example. I’m eager to see this one so I can see if they’ve lived up to what Miller and Lord did the first time around.
“Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2” opens in theaters everywhere September 27, 2013.